Barry Manilow, matinee idol?

Single Cell partners Sandy Stern and Michael Stipe and Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman have joined forces to develop a romantic comedy that will exploit the song catalogue of iconic singer/songwriter Barry Manilow. Manilow’s manager, Garry Kief., will also produce.

Deal follows Sony’s recent deal to make a theatrical release of rehearsal footage from Michael Jackson’s final concert, and Disney’s negotiations to make a Robert Zemeckis-directed “Yellow Submarine” remake in performance capture 3-D that will use classic Beatles songs.

Manilow has pledged his support, and songs, to the project. The producers will first take the project to Universal, where Playtone has its first-look deal.

Though Playtone produced the U blockbuster “Mamma Mia!,” the idea for the film is closer in tone to “Love Actually.” Characters will not follow a plot and burst into song, as Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan and others sang from the Abba catalog. 

The project was hatched by Stern, who hooked Manilow with the idea making a character-driven romantic comedy with intersecting storylines involving Manilow fans who are all arriving in Las Vegas on a weekend where Manilow will headline Mandalay Bay, the largest venue on the Strip.  His music will be heard through the movie. Manilow will also perform a song or two in the film.

Manilow, who was repped in the deal by WME, will be a collaborator in shaping the project once a writer is hired.

Troy Queen and Mark Grove will also be involved as producers.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright has teamed with lyricist Amanda Green to turn the 1997 documentary “Hands on a Hard Body” into a stage musical.

The musical was commissioned by the La Jolla Playhouse, where the musical will make its initial run. Also involved in a development capacity is Gotham-based Playwrights Horizon.

The musical will be produced by Kevin Morris, Robb Bindler and Chapin Wilson.

Considered a cult favorite, the documentary chronicles an annual endurance contest in Longview, Texas, in which 24 contestants competed for a new pickup truck. The winner was the person who stood upright longest, with one hand on the truck. The contest ended after 77 hours.

Wright, who grew up in Dallas, was familiar with the annual contest and saw the film which hasn’t been in DVD circulation for years. He felt that the hopes and desperation of the contestants made it work onstage. Wright brought it to Green, the Jonathan Larson Award-winning lyricist whose credits include “High Fidelity.” 

“What could have been a comical look at a local eccentric tradition and a send-up of Texas stereotypes became a powerful metaphor for the nature of success and failure in America,” Wright said. “For each character, the truck represents something different. There is a devoutly religious contestant for whom this is a test of faith, there is a returning champion defending his manhood, a bike-riding young woman for whom this is a ticket out of a small community to chase larger dreams.”

The $35,000 docu was financed by Morris, a principal of the Century City law firm Morris Yorn Barnes & Levine. Morris owns the picture with Bindler, who directed, and Matthew McConaughey, who paid to have the print blown up to 16 mm so that it could play the festival circuit. 

Morris said there have been several approaches to adapt the docu, but the owners resisted. That included a campaign to turn the contest into a film by director Robert Altman. Altman died before anything happened.

Wright has worked with Playwrights Horizon on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play “I Am My Own Wife” and the musical “Grey Gardens.” La Jolla Playhouse showcased “I Am My Own Wife” and commissioned Wright’s adaptation of the August Strindberg play “Creditors,” which will premiere at La Jolla Playhouse later this season.

“Commissions are a core component of our artistic mission, and we couldn’t be more excited to help originate this new piece based on a trenchant slice of Americana that explores the most exuberant and most troubling aspects of our competitive spirit,” said La Jolla Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley.

After reviving the `Halloween' franchise, Rob Zombie will next reinvent `The Blob.'

Zombie will write, direct and produce a remake of the 1958 horror classic that launched the career of Steve McQueen. Production will begin next spring.

Zombie’s deal to make `The Blob' his next film comes as Dimension opens `H2,' the Zombie-directed sequel to his 2007 hit “Halloween.”

In the original, an object from space crashes into a field, containing a red blob-like substance that absorbs the humans it contacts and grows exponentially. While Zombie was a fan of the original, his version will be much different.  

`My intention is not to have a big red blobby thing, that’s the first thing I want to change,' Zombie said. `That gigantic Jello-looking thing might have been scary to audiences in the 1950s, but people would laugh now. I have a totally different take, one that’s pretty dark.'

Zombie will produce with Genre Company’s Richard Saperstein and Brian Witten, original `Blob' producer Jack H. Harris, and Judith Parker Harris of Worldwide Entertainment Corporation.

Saperstein, the former Dimension Films president who developed a relationship with Zombie while they worked on `Halloween,' said that funding is in place to make an R-rated film that will cost around $30 million. The film’s budget model is similar to recent fright fare like `Cloverfield' and `District 9,' and they will likely lock in a studio distributor before production begins. Genre Company is in pre-production on the independently financed Darren Bousman-directed remake `Mother’s Day.'

For Zombie, the appeal of taking on `The Blob' as his fifth directorial outing was a chance to broaden his range.

`I’d been looking to break out of the horror genre, and this really is a science fiction movie about a thing from outer space,' Zombie said. `I intend to make it scary, and the great thing is, I have the freedom once again to take it in any crazy direction I want to. Even more than `Halloween,' where I had to deal with accepted iconic characters like Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. `The Blob’ is more concept than specific storyline with characters, so I can go nuts with it.'

Zombie has begun writing. While he’ll follow the release of `H2' with a new album and tour this fall, he’ll complete the script at that time.

`I usually follow a movie by putting out a record and going on tour, and I write the script during that tour,' he said. `The tour will take me through Christmas.'

Though Zombie is once again tackling subject matter considered iconic to fright mavens, he’ll repeat his `Halloween' strategy of not being overly reverential.

`I feel good about `H2’ in that it’s far superior to the first film I made, and has no relationship to anything that came before it, or that was in the John Carpenter film,' Zombie said. `My job as director is to carry out my vision. I won’t be pushed around or persuaded in any other direction, and I tell them if that doesn’t work, save the heartache and fire me right now. When you’re out there shooting at 4 AM, you can’t remember notes you got from somebody months ago. What I’m told is, we want you to do your thing, so go for it.'

Zombie’s repped by ICM and managed by Spectacle Entertainment’s Andy Gould, who will also be a producer.